The World of Web Domains Is About to Be Revolutionized

Soon, there will be more than just the 22 classic domain suffixes (.com, .it, .org, .net, etc.). More creative and personalized suffixes will also become available, such as .shop for stores or .nyc for a large city like New York City.

Just yesterday, ICANN, the organization that sets the rules for website names, decided to liberalize the domain market, allowing anyone to choose their preferred suffix, including ideograms or Arabic characters.

This is the result of years of effort by the Internet community, governments, and companies, but it will not come cheap. The price for a “special” domain will be $185,000 (around €130,000), which is why it is expected that mostly large organizations will apply.

How can you get one? Applications will be open from January 12, 2012, to April 12, 2012.